APN's general coordinator , President of the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty, Razan Zuayter has said that wars and conflicts seriously disrupt social, environmental and natural resources structures, and that they threaten the region's ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change. She stressed that it is not possible to talk about combating climate change without looking at the political dimensions associated with it. 

Her comments came in an address during a meeting of ESCWA committee on October 15th, 2019 held on the sidelines of the forty-sixth session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), in the Italian capital, Rome. She said climate change increases the need for scarce resources, which increases the intensity of the conflict, This, in turn, creates a vicious circle that must be addressed, pointing out that resilience and recovery are not possible if safety is not available at all levels. 

 She added: “our Arab Network for Food Sovereignty (ANFS) is proud of being one of the hidden forces that pushed for global consensus on how to mitigate and prevent threats to food security and nutrition during crises, wars and conflicts.” 

She encouraged within this context Arab institutions to pay attention to the document linking emergency and development efforts with a solution to conflicts.

In a related framework, Zuayter called for an urgent focus on enabling small-scale farmers to adapt and combat the marginalization of climate-sensitive agriculture, and a commitment to prioritize and expand eco-agricultural and organic agriculture.

She called on International and regional organizations including FAO, IFAD and the World Food Program to support Arab civil society networks, such as the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty, to achieve the desired goals of food security in the Arab region.

 Zuayter ended by expressing her pride in signing a memorandum of understanding with the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development in order to enhance cooperation in the various agricultural and food fields. She said she is looking forward to similar cooperative steps with other organizations.